Category: Good Eats

Tokyo is enjoying a vegetarian revolution. When I lived here seven years ago, finding healthy food - TRULY vegetarian or organic food - was a bit of a challenge. Fast forward the clock and in the Tokyo of today, you can't go more than ten yards without tripping over a juice stand, an eatery serving... Continue Reading →

Matsue is a town with some pretty good food. And luckily, you don't have to leave the tourist area to find some excellent options for lunch. Yakumo-a sits tucked in an old house along the row of former samurai mansions in Matsue's Bukeyashiki quarter. If visiting foreign-born writer Lafcadio Hearn's residence and one of the... Continue Reading →

There are certain good things to moving house, at least in the initial days. One of the bright spots is that I don't have to cook. Don't get me wrong, I love to be in the kitchen some of the time and I love to make healthy food for my family. But it's nice to... Continue Reading →

A few of you have mentioned to me in the comments or elsewhere that you were surprised to hear that 1) I actually lived for quite a while in Okinawa and 2) I didn't really like it all that much at the time. True, and true. I'm certainly much happier here in Kyushu, without the... Continue Reading →

I find I have a strange fascination as of late with the pottery town of Arita. It's not that I am even all that into porcelain, which is what Saga Prefecture's Arita has been producing - to perfection, some might say - for the past 399 years. But when a town takes as much pride... Continue Reading →

There's something fishy about Kochi, a city in southern Shikoku. But residents of (and visitors to) the area wouldn't have it any other way. Kochi is famous for skipjack tuna, known as katsuo in Japanese. These fish utilize the warm Kuroshio current that runs just offshore to head to and from their breeding grounds. The fish is at its... Continue Reading →

I’ve just come back from three packed days of sightseeing and eating in Kyoto and, while I’d love to keep this amazing matcha cheesecake a secret, I can’t help but share with you all my new favorite café in the old capital. If you’ve been fighting the crowds on the Kiyomizu-zaka (one of the main... Continue Reading →

The seaside city of Karatsu in northern Saga prefecture might not seem like the place to come on a tofu pilgrimage but if you love soy in all its incarnations, you shouldn't miss a meal at 200-year-old Kawashima Tofu. Chef Kawashima keeps baker's hours, in the kitchen by 3am every morning to start boiling and... Continue Reading →

Over the Christmas holiday this year, my family and I went to Tochigi prefecture to a ryokan that I have had my eye on for years. I chose it in part due to its snowy setting in winter and also due to its unique cooking style - the guests' dinner is prepared over an irori, or... Continue Reading →